保护地球，探索宇宙，发现文明
2023年4月8日 M100: A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing: Judy Schmidt Explanation: Majestic on a truly cosmic scale, M100 is appropriately known as a grand design spiral galaxy. It is a large galaxy of over 100 billion stars with well-defined spiral arms that is similar to our own Milky Way Galaxy. One of the brightest member...
2023年4月5日 Rubin’s Galaxy Image Credit: NASA, ESA, B. Holwerda (University of Louisville) Explanation: In this Hubble Space Telescope image the bright, spiky stars lie in the foreground toward the heroic northern constellation Perseus and well within our own Milky Way galaxy. In sharp focus beyond is UGC 2885, a giant spiral galaxy about 232 million lig...
2023年3月23日 Spiral Galaxy NGC 2841 Image Credit & Copyright: Roberto Marinoni Explanation: A mere 46 million light-years distant, spiral galaxy NGC 2841 can be found in planet Earth’s night sky toward the northern constellation of Ursa Major. This sharp image centered on the gorgeous island universe also captures spiky foreground Milky Way stars an...
2023年3月22日 M31: The Andromeda Galaxy Image Credit & Copyright: Abdullah Al-Harbi Explanation: How far can you see? The most distant object easily visible to the unaided eye is M31, the great Andromeda Galaxy, over two million light-years away. Without a telescope, even this immense spiral galaxy appears as an unremarkable, faint, nebulous cloud in the c...
2023年2月18日 Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1365 from Webb Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Janice Lee (NOIRLab) – Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI) Explanation: A mere 56 million light-years distant toward the southern constellation Fornax, NGC 1365 is an enormous barred spiral galaxy about 200,000 light-years in diameter. That’s twice the size of our own b...
2023年2月16日 The Hydra Cluster of Galaxies Image Credit & Copyright: Marco Lorenzi, Angus Lau, Tommy Tse Text: ChatGPT (apologies to Edgar Allen Poe) Explanation: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, O’er volumes of astronomy and forgotten lore, I stumbled upon this snapshot, cosmic and eerie, A sight that filled my heart wi...
2023年1月4日 CG4: The Globule and the Galaxy Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby & Mark Hanson Explanation: Can a gas cloud eat a galaxy? It’s not even close. The “claw” of this odd looking “creature” in the featured photo is a gas cloud known as a cometary globule. This globule, however, has ruptured. Cometary globules ...
2022年12月28日 Messier 88 Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block, Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter, U. Arizona Explanation: Charles Messier described the 88th entry in his 18th century catalog of Nebulae and Star Clusters as a spiral nebula without stars. Of course the gorgeous M88 is now understood to be a galaxy full of stars, gas, and dust, not unlike our own Milky W...
2022年11月25日 NGC 6744: Extragalactic Close-Up Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the LEGUS team Explanation: Beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 6744 is nearly 175,000 light-years across. That’s larger than the Milky Way. It lies some 30 million light-years distant in the southern constellation Pavo, with its galactic disk tilted towards our line of sight. This Hubbl...
2022年11月3日 M33: The Triangulum Galaxy Image Credit & Copyright: Processing – Robert Gendler Data – Hubble Legacy Archive, KPNO, NOIRLab, NSF, Aura, Amateur Sources Explanation: The small, northern constellation Triangulum harbors this magnificent face-on spiral galaxy, M33. Its popular names include the Pinwheel Galaxy or just the Triangulum...